The Taiwan Adventure: December 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

Random Asianess: Valentino Rossi...Baby!

Check this…. Centrifugal clutch, front and rear disc brakes, 150ccs of raw rice-burning power, the Valentino Rossi design complete with #46. Okay, so it isn’t a Harley, but I bet your Harley doesn’t cost $5.00 USD to fill up and give you about 100 miles to the gallon.

Scooters are by far the best way to get anywhere in Taiwan. You can go around traffic jams; you can travel at the speed limit when all the cars have to go much slower. In Taiwan, in order to get a license to drive a car you have to already have a license to drive a small motorcycle. A small motorcycle is 50cc to 150cc anything bigger than that is considered a heavy motorcycle.

Scooters come in many varieties and sizes. They range from 50cc two stroke engines to 650cc four strokers. Of course, price and gas mileage are as variable as the size. A 100cc Yamaha scooter is around $60,000 NTD that equates about $2,000.00 USD. Before coming to Taiwan I was looking at scooters in the US, just to get an idea of what they run. Of course, most of the ones you see there are European. They ran around $2,900.00 USD for a 100cc. I paid about $2600.00 USD for mine but it needed some modification so that I could ride it.

The mods aren’t what you’d think. I wasn’t looking for a custom high performance looking scooter. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I didn’t think I’d have the strength to use the rear handbrake, so I added a foot brake. I also added some side wheels so the bike would be a steady platform for me to dismount. The problem is that I can’t just stand up, I have to use my arm muscles to compensate for the weak back muscles because of the Muscular Dystrophy. Once on I could ride without the outriggers, but I wouldn’t be able to get off the bike. So the mods added about $600.00 to the cost.

My scooter is the Valentino Rossi signature version. It is designed to look like the Yamaha racing bike with which he won the World Championship most recently. I felt kind of stupid at first, here I am this old fart riding a bike designed to appeal to kids. I mean really, it’s like buying a car with the same paint job as the Dukes of Hazzard car. For those of you under 45, please check Google to find out what I’m talking about. It somehow seems undignified; you know what I’m talking about. But I have gotten amazingly positive remarks from everyone. “Hěn Kù!” (very cool) being the most common.

It is amazingly powerful for such a small bike; and very fun to drive. Rain or shine I’d rather take the bike than the car. That kind of drives the kids nuts, they’re a little embarrassed, I think, to be seen on it.

The rules for driving a scooter are different in Taiwan than in the US. In the US, all laws that apply to motorcycles apply to scooters. But it’s different in Taiwan, that’s why they have the designation between small and heavy motorcycles. Most major roads have a designated scooter lane. (If there’s room, that is. Taiwan’s houses are built pretty close to the street.) It is illegal to go over a bridge if there is no scooter lane that is separated from the other traffic. And you can pass on the right. Every intersection has a designated area for scooters to wait for stoplights and because of that on most intersections do not allow a right turn on a red light. Some will have a green right turn arrow but then you can only turn right after a stop. Neither scooters nor heavy motorcycles are allowed on the freeway. You must be 18 years of age to ride a motorcycle of any kind.

There is one problem and that is that scooters have a tendency to get squished. The biggest problem lies with the fact that scooters are everywhere. If you signal to make a turn in your car, you have to look in every direction to make sure no scooters are darting around you on the side that you are turning towards. The scooters are very agile and easily maneuvered and many times scooter drivers have a tendency to depend on those things to keep hem safe. This is a flawed hypothesis: it is only an illusion of safety. Safety comes from driving defensively and expecting the unexpected.

Driving in Taiwan is complicated. There are a lot of driving laws; in fact, Taiwan’s vehicle code is much the same as California’s. The difference is that enforcement is minimal. The cops have a strategy of focusing on one particular type of violation a month. If you don’t do that, then you’re home free. So, driving here is a lot like anarchy, minus the bombs and guys with long beards. Nobody follows any rules.

(Part 1 of a three part series on Scootering in Taiwan.)

Photos by Emily Banducci: Thanks to our companion blog, "Glimpses of Taiwan" for Video

Other posts you may be interested in:

Scootering in Taiwan: New Helmet Technology
Traveling with M13: Custom Scooters of Taiwan

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Pathetical Analyticals: Blog Statistics for 2010

Taiwan Travelogue Part 2 11/28/2010

A number of years ago a man I'd just met told me, “You’re so analytical it’s pathetic, I bet you have all your socks lined up in the drawer in a certain way…just right.” Just to show you how bad it really is, my immediate reaction was "Of course, is that weird?” But I have to tell you, he absolutely nailed me. One of my great delights is analysis.

One of the things I really enjoy doing is tracking statistics for everything. So, since we are nearing the end of 2010, I want to present the statistics for the Taiwan Adventure Blog (the Blog). The Blog is one year and five months old, but I have only been tracking stats since July of 2010, about six months.

Here are the results:

Visitors

Traveling with M13: The Return 9/13/10

Since July there have been 1,754 unique visitors to the blog. A unique visitor is an individual IP Address. This is registered the first time an IP Address shows up. The next time that IP Address shows up it isn’t counted. The total number of visits to the blog since July is 3,889 or an average of 2.2 visits per unique visitor. However, some people are regular visitors and others are one-time hits, so the value of this number is negligible, it’s just cool. People have visited the Blog from fifty-two different countries. The United States and Taiwan provide highest number of visitors with 1,188 and 1,141 respectively. Canada is a distant third with 109, and it all goes down hill from there. In the US, California, Arizona and Texas provide the most visitors. For the month of December, California had 44 unique visitors, Arizona had 14 and Texas 10. There were a number where the IP Address couldn’t be tracked to a particular state. These may have been mobile devices like a smart phone. December has averaged 36.35 visits per day.

Sources

Blog Listings: The Blog is listed on three websites that list Taiwan blogs.

Taiwan Bloggers – www.taiwanblogs.blogspot.com. This blog site lists English language blogs written about Taiwan. They range from personal blogs to political blogs and all other categories in between.

Life is Taiwanderful – www.taiwanderful.net. This is travel and information blog based in Taiwan that posts a lot of information about Taiwanese life, culture and politics, as well as other things. It has a list of Taiwan Blogs and hosts the "Best Taiwan Blog" competition, of which the The Taiwan Adventure, was a participant this year.

Expat Blogs – This website lists blogs from all over the world in an effort to give information to those who would be moving to a particular country as an expatriate.

Traveling with M13 5/24/10

Each of these provides many visitors to the blog. Taiwanderful has provided 87 unique visitors since November when I added myself to their list, whereas Taiwan Blogs has provided 24 visitors since October. The Expat blogs listing has provided 18 visitors since last week when we were added to that web listing site. One reason for the larger number of visitors from Taiwanderful is probably due the Taiwan’s Best Blog competition. In the last week Expat blogs has been the largest provider of visitors from any source.

Other sources: I have registered the Blog with all search engines. Since July Google has resulted in 803 unique visitors to the Blog. This can be broken down by country to a certain extent as well

Google.com – 529
Google.au – 66 Australia
Google.ca – 66 Canada
Google.com.tw – 64 Taiwan
Google.uk – 56 United Kingdom
Google.ph – 42 Philippines

Overlooking Taoyuan City 4/15/10

The most popular search keywords are: Dragon Boats, Taiwanese Traditions, Chris Banducci and Mordeth 13. Dragon Boats and Taiwanese Traditions often mean the same thing, people interested in the Dragon Boat Races or Zongzi.

I also post on Facebook every time there is a new post on the Blog. Facebook has resulted in 126 visits to the Blog since July.

Incoming Links: One way in which blogs measure authority is through the number of external sites pointing to the blog's domain. In other words the number of other sites that have some kind of link to a particular blog or website. The number of external websites with links leading to the Taiwan Adventure Blog is 191. The Blog is a relatively new blog, so as it ages and more people pick up links to the blog this number will increase.

Local Color: Temples of Taoyuan 10/1/10

The link can be anything where the link is used,.for example a photo or publishing credit or just a link to the blog.

Popular Posts:

I find this very interesting I have done a number of fairly popular posts. I usually use a special heading depending on what the post is about:

Cultural Unawareness – Where I make language or cultural mistakes
Eating my Way Through Taiwan – Different Taiwanese foods that I’ve tried
Random Asianess – Things that are done differently in Asia than in the west
Taiwan Travelogue – This is relatively new but relates to Traveling
Taiwanese History – This is self-explanatory
Taiwanese Traditions – A look at religious and cultural traditions peculiar to Taiwan
Traveling with M13 – Locations that You Tube Vlogger Mordeth 13 has shared with me.

By far the most popular post to date has been, “Taiwanese Traditions: The Dragon Boat Festival" – 6/21/2010. 621 views since July.

"Typhoon Conson: Here it Comes" – 7/13/2010. 158 views since it was published

"An American Presence: What I don’t Miss in Taiwan" – 10/1/2010. 57 views since it was published.

Taiwan Travelogue: Taipei 101 11/22/10

Monday, December 13, 2010

Taiwan Travelogue: Old Ceramics Street

There is a little city (probably 350,000 people) near Taoyuan City called Yingge (pronounced Ing Ge [Hard G sound]). The city is famous for ceramics. There are a lot of places where they teach you to throw pots and other things. Not throw…throw…on the wheel, not at someone.

But there is a particular part of the city that’s really very nice. It is somewhat of a touristy area. In fact, they have a parking area for tour buses just below this little section of the city. It’s called, "Ceramics Old Street." It is filled with many little shops where you can purchase fine art quality ceramics at a reasonable price. To get there from Taoyuan City, take Shiren 3rd Street to Tao Ming Road (110) and turn right...follow that to Ceramics Old Street. Along the way the name changes from Tao Ming Road to Ying Tao road.

It rains in Taiwan

The street is a type of cobblestone, with raised sidewalks. These are sidewalks you can actually walk on. Rick Creamers, who was the founding pastor of the Potter’s House Christian Fellowship Church in Zhongli, when speaking about the sidewalks said, “Look down and live.” I know exactly what he means, the sidewalks are all different heights, it is very easy to trip and fall. But not on Old Ceramics Street, the sidewalks are level and broad.

Inside the stores are many beautiful items. There is one store that sells ceramic and wood sculptures. There is another store that specializes in fountains; the kind where the water spins a huge stone ball that is held up by water pressure. But the main item sold is ceramics: They have tea sets, tea tables, mugs, plates and just about anything else you might want in ceramic.

The atmosphere in Old ceramics Street is very nice. There are benches all along the sidewalk where one can sit and enjoy the parade of people walking by. If you know me you know that for obvious reasons I’m not much of a walker, but I like to find a bench and watch the tourists and locals walk by.

It’s funny when you see the tour groups following carefully after their guide you can tell the ones from Mainland China…All the men are wearing white socks. I don’t know what that’s all about but white socks are all the rage in Mainland China, I guess.

Finally, there is an excellent restaurant on Old Ceramics Street the name of it is: Something in Chinese that I can’t read. But they have an excellent Niu Rho Mian (Beef Noodles). The owner is a very friendly guy who takes time with each customer, helps you to order the perfect meal and serves you himself. The tea that he serves is Wheat tea. It is made from wheat, it has a nice flavor and beautiful honey color, but no Caffeine. His restaurant is on the main street just up a few blocks from tour parking area. If you need less vague instructions email me, the address is on the “Contact Us” page.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Taiwanese Traditions: Selling and Brewing Tea

(Click on Photos to Enlarge.)

I have lately become very interested in tea. Tea is grown in Taiwan and you often see tea growing on the side of the road. I have seen Tea fields in Taoyuan on Hu Tou Shan (Tigerhead Mountain), Daxi and Longtan.

Buying tea is an interesting experience. The seller prepares a variety of teas in different price ranges, growing and harvesting methods for you to sample. An evaluation cup is warmed with hot water. Then 5 grams of tea is placed in the cup and 100-Celsius water is poured on it. It is brewed for 6 minutes. Then the seller will take a ceramic spoon and heat it then dip it into the brewed tea so you can smell the aroma of the tea. Then will pour a small cup for you to try.

We recently took a friend to Union Tea in Bade to purchase some tea to take back to America. The seller set up some teas for us to sample. They ranged in price from $30.00 USD to $300.00USD for 600 grams (approximately one pound.) All of the teas were organically grown; some of the teas were harvested by hand and some by machine. The more expensive teas were harvested by hand. You can simply tell when you begin to brew the tea and the leaves unfold. If harvested by hand there is a cluster of three leaves together. Machine harvested tea will have only one leaf and may be cut or torn. As you see a field you can tell the harvest method by the look of the plant. The machine-harvested plants will be flat across the top.

Union Tea has a tea that has been judged as the “Best in the World” by tea masters. It won a competition against teas from sixty other countries. This tea sells for $3 Million NTD for 600 grams. That’s $90,000 USD. But you can buy it in packages of 200 grams, for about the price of a Toyota Prius. That’s a little more than I want to pay for tea.

There is a whole ritual and tradition that goes with drinking tea in Taiwan and so I have learned to brew and serve tea Taiwan style. I purchased a tea table that is made from a large stump of a tree. The table is hollowed out and has a drain in the bottom to drain water from the brewing process. There are a number of varieties of tea tables, some are modern functional stainless steel, while others are made from stones or wood like mine. The wooden and stone ones are much more traditional as they mix function with beauty, which is part of the Chinese mindset.

Brewing Pitcher

Prior to brewing tea it is necessary to warm the ceramic pots by pouring hot waster into them. Then you put in a small amount of tea, the amount depends on the size of your brewing pot. Pour 100 degree Celsius water over the tea and then pour it out immediately into serving pitcher and then into the cups. This washes the tea leaves and warms the ceramics. Then brew a pot of tea for 20 seconds. Then pour into the serving pitched and then into the cups.

If you don’t have a serving pitcher pour the tea from the brewing pot into each cup. But fill only partway, then fill the cups the remainder of the way. This will keep the tea at a uniform strength. Then rebrew. You can rebrew up to seven times with a high quality tea. (Four times for a lower quality tea.)

Serving Pitcher

Tea Cups

Tea Field photos: Union Tea Company http://www.uniontea.com.tw/

Other posts you may be interested in:

Taiwan Travelogue: Old Ceramics Street
Taiwan Travelogue: Overlooking Taoyuan City

Pages